Intel® Ethernet Adapters and Devices User Guide
Adapter Teaming
Intel® Advanced Network Services (Intel® ANS) teaming lets you take advantage of multiple adapters in a system by grouping them together. Intel ANS teaming can use features like fault tolerance and load balancing to increase throughput and reliability.
Before creating a team or adding team members, make sure each team member has been configured similarly. Settings to check include VLANs and QoS Packet Tagging, Jumbo Packets, and the various offloads. Pay particular attention when using different adapter models or adapter versions, as adapter capabilities vary.
For more information on VLANs, see Virtual LANs (VLANs).
See the following subsections for details.
Configuration and Compatibility Notes
Microsoft Windows 10 is the last Windows operating system version that supports Intel ANS. Intel ANS is not supported on Microsoft Windows 11 and later.
Intel ANS is not supported on Microsoft Windows Server 2016 and later.
To configure teams in Linux, use Channel Bonding, available in supported Linux kernels. For more information see the channel bonding documentation within the kernel source.
Not all team types are available on all operating systems.
Be sure to use the latest available drivers on all adapters.
Not all Intel devices support Intel ANS. Intel adapters that do not support Intel ANS may still be included in a team. However, they are restricted in the same way non-Intel adapters are. See Multi-Vendor Teaming for more information.
You cannot create a team that includes both Intel X710/XL710-based devices and Intel® I350-based devices. These devices are incompatible together in a team and will be blocked during team setup.
NDIS 6.2 introduced new RSS data structures and interfaces. Because of this, you cannot enable RSS on teams that contain a mix of adapters that support NDIS 6.2 RSS and adapters that do not.
If a team is bound to a Hyper-V virtual NIC, you cannot change the Primary or Secondary adapter.
To assure a common feature set, some advanced features, including hardware offloading, are automatically disabled when an adapter that does not support the feature is added to a team.
Hot Plug operations in a Multi-Vendor Team may cause system instability. We recommended that you restart the system or reload the team after performing Hot Plug operations with a Multi-Vendor Team. When you physically remove an adapter that is part of a team or a VLAN, you must reboot or reload the team/VLAN before using that adapter in the same network. This will prevent Ethernet address conflicts.
Spanning tree protocol (STP) should be disabled on switch ports connected to teamed adapters in order to prevent data loss when the primary adapter is returned to service (failback). Alternatively, an activation delay may be configured on the adapters to prevent data loss when spanning tree is used.
Data Center Bridging will be automatically disabled when an adapter is added to a team with non-DCB capable adapters.
NLB will not work when Receive Load Balancing (RLB) is enabled. This occurs because NLB and iANS both attempt to set the server’s multicast MAC address, resulting in an ARP table mismatch.
Teaming with the Intel® 10 Gigabit AF DA Dual Port Server Adapter is only supported with similar adapter types and models or with switches using a Direct Attach connection.
If you want to set up VLANs on a team, you must first create the team.
After adding a VLAN to the team, the Network Connections window shows the team as disabled or network cable unplugged. This is normal. The connection protocols are now bound to the VLAN on the team. You can configure the connection protocols in the Properties for the VLAN.
Teaming and VLAN Considerations When Replacing Adapters
After installing an adapter in a specific slot, Windows treats any other adapter of the same type as a new adapter. Also, if you remove the installed adapter and insert it into a different slot, Windows recognizes it as a new adapter. Make sure that you follow the instructions below carefully.
If the adapter is part of a team, remove the adapter from the team.
Shut down the system and unplug the power cable.
Disconnect the network cable from the adapter.
Open the case and remove the adapter.
Insert the replacement adapter. (Use the same slot, otherwise Windows assumes that there is a new adapter.)
Reconnect the network cable.
Close the case, reattach the power cable, and power up the server.
Microsoft Load Balancing and Failover (LBFO) Teams
Intel ANS teaming and VLANs are not compatible with Microsoft’s LBFO teams. Intel PROSet will block a member of an LBFO team from being added to an Intel ANS team or VLAN. You should not add a port that is already part of an Intel ANS team or VLAN to an LBFO team, as this may cause system instability. If you use an Intel ANS team member or VLAN in an LBFO team, perform the following procedure to restore your configuration:
Reboot the machine
Remove LBFO team. Even though LBFO team creation failed, after a reboot Server Manager will report that LBFO is Enabled, and the LBFO interface is present in the “NIC Teaming” GUI.
Remove the Intel ANS teams and VLANs involved in the LBFO team and recreate them. This is an optional (all bindings are restored when the LBFO team is removed), but strongly recommended step
If you add an Intel AMT enabled port to an LBFO team, do not set the port to Standby in the LBFO team. If you set the port to Standby you may lose AMT functionality.
DCB is incompatible with Microsoft Server LBFO Teams. Do not create an LBFO team when DCB is installed. Do not install DCB if you use LBFO teaming. Install failures and persistent link loss may occur if DCB and LBFO are used on the same port.
Supported Adapters
Teaming options are supported on Intel server adapters. Selected adapters from other manufacturers are also supported. If you are using a Windows-based computer, adapters that appear in Intel PROSet may be included in a team.
In order to use adapter teaming, you must have at least one Intel server adapter in your system. Furthermore, all adapters must be linked to the same switch or hub.
Conditions that may prevent you from teaming a device: During team creation or modification, the list of available team types or list of available devices may not include all team types or devices. This may be caused by any of several conditions, including:
The device does not support the desired team type or does not support teaming at all.
The operating system does not support the desired team type.
The devices you want to team together use different driver versions.
TOE (TCP Offload Engine) enabled devices cannot be added to an Intel ANS team and will not appear in the list of available adapters.
You can add Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) enabled devices to Adapter Fault Tolerance (AFT), Switch Fault Tolerance (SFT), and Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB) teams. All other team types are not supported. The Intel AMT enabled device must be designated as the primary adapter for the team.
The device’s MAC address is overridden by the Locally Administered Address advanced setting.
The device has “OS Controlled” or “Enabled” selected on the Data Center tab.
The device has a virtual NIC bound to it.
The device is part of a Microsoft Load Balancing and Failover (LBFO) team.